One Synth Challenge with Kairatune, 49 instances.  A tribute to the epic Social Network soundtrack.

Always wanted to learn Kairatune, never had the opportunity.  It seemed like it could span textures really easily which is always good in a monosynth.   Kicks were the hardest probably, a little CamelCrusher helped with that.
Somewhere out of fiddling with patches came the Social Network angle, and I ran with it.  That soundtrack is one of those that hit for me instantly and stuck with me since.  I remember seeing Trent describe the Swarmatron, a custom synth manufactured for the soundtrack.  Kairatune did a pretty good job emulating it I believe.  Lots of bass layers in this track too, something I noticed TR+AR did in the soundtrack.

As usual, more nitty gritty in the kvr thread.

After All The Cake And Watermelon (KVR OSC 145)

SWC 045 was "choose your own electronic music" genre.  I started with BigBeat but ended up in a funky place with dj-esque elements.  Had a ton a fun despite complete lack of time.  I tried to do a Fatboy Slim angle on it, but didn't have time to go back and add the dj stutters that would make it sound more like him.  I'm happy with how it turned out.  Hope it leads to serious booty shaking.

Simple Creatures

One Synth Challenge, any Full Bucket synth.  I went with Ragnarok, not sure why honestly, always been curious about it - maybe to see how far I could push it.  36 instances on this track.

The inspiration for this composition was a moment in the show Invincible.  If you've seen it, you know where this track comes from, sorry no spoilers allowed.

Most of the track is melody based since Ragnarok isn't a crazy synth with tons of modulation possibilities.  I appreciated it for its limited flexibility and solid tone.

Still Have You (Mark's Song) (KVR OSC 147)

A fictional spin-off theme song.   Jan Hammer inspired track for KVRAudio's One Synth Challenge #104.  Beware, ear worms.

Castillo (KVR OSC 104)

A cover of a cover of a classic track.  Check out https://soundcloud.com/gershon-kingsley the original composer of Popcorn, one of the most covered tracks ever.

Hot Butter (Popcorn)

One Synth Challenge with VK-1 Viking by Blamsoft, a monosynth.  16 instances used.  epicVerb, TAL Reverb 4, Ambient Reverb, OTT, and of course BlueARP.
As usual, more details in the KVR thread.

2020 update - Thanks for listening years later!

a peaceful town (KVR OSC 107)

One Synth Challenge featuring Fathom, from Seaweed Audio.  A tribute to John Hughes-era soundtracks.  16 instances.

Heartbreak High (KVR OSC 109)

One Synth Challenge featuring Synth1 by Ichiro Toda.  Heavy on the 90s rock thanks to Synth1's very classic overdrive sound.  No distortion pedals were harmed in the making of this track.  21 instances.

Between (KVR OSC 112)

A very quick and loose cover of Tuyo by Ricardo Amarante.  I won't lie, this happened because I binge watched Narcos Mexico which is amazing.  Don't mind the stock loop, only had a couple hours for this.

Tuyo

One Synth Challenge with the surprisingly versatile SE Polymod KX by Xavier Kalensky.  As usual, not much time due to work, but loved making sounds with this wildcat of a modular.  21 instances.

Interlude (KVR OSC 120)

One Synth Challenge featuring Harmor.  Incredibly only 11 instances, but what do you expect from a modern synth.  Each patch in Harmor gets two oscillators where you get a full range of envelopes and mappings plus its own set of double filters.  Yes, I saw a shooting star during the production.  Awesome.

Harmor's mapping and flow feel very atypical and offputting, but once in it, you feel like it sort of makes sense.  There is room for refinement to reduce the confusion and I would love a generalized velocity -> LFO/MSEG depth which it surprisingly doesn't have.  As usual I would probably have preferred a mapping matrix.  Still, I think it's an incredibly powerful synth and I really want to get into using it as one of my primaries.

This track was made in a surprisingly short time.  I had a few major life interruptions including a week of being sick, but I'm pretty happy with it as it is.  The goal of it was to pay homage to the mid-late 90s trance tracks I enjoyed greatly and always felt were so deep to me.  Think Binary Finary, Ferry Corsten etc.  Enjoy!

Raga For A Shooting Star (KVR OSC 121)

One Synth Challenge featuring Diva by u-He.

An unabashed homage to the composer of the Blade Runner soundtrack, Vangelis.  I've been itching to do something with Diva and its incredible noise and filters for a while.   I wouldn't say I got in deep, but I got deep enough to get some mood.  Disable quantization for the win.  It's been a while since I've listened to the soundtrack, and I didn't use it as a reference at all.  I'm curious to go back and listen to it now that this song is done.

Despite the Vangelis leads, my actual influence for this track was probably more Brian Eno's Dune soundtrack and its lazy textures.  I think there's more for me to explore there, but not for this track.

Terrace View (KVR OSC 127)

Entry for Reddit /r/edmproduction Sample Pack Competition 90.

This was a great bunch of samples, and I used up all the time playing around with making wavetables since I finally got a wavetable synth.  Loved the vocals in this sample pack, super inspirational, I wrote the music around it based on the vibes.

Not Alone (/r/edmproduction SPC90)

One Synth Challenge with Syncla-X

The Syncla-X is a half way implemented and abandoned emulation of the  Synclavier, 80s synth that was actually pretty popular.   The Synclavier was a pretty hot item back in the day, as an example, it was the opening synth sound to Michael Jackson's Beat It.

This free emulation we worked with decidedly less classic.  Certain features were missing or broken, but it was fun to play with it once I figured an angle on it.   The theme I went with is "that shitty synth your dad or uncle bought years ago and left in the garage to collect dust and now his wife or gf yells at him about selling or just getting rid of it".

8 instances were used in this epic production.   Unfortunately only had about 3-4 hours of recording time for this one, busy busy busy :(.

Preset 1 (KVR OSC 131)

Just honing my process and waiting for warmer weather.

Rain

Tourist - Kin (functionform Remix)

One Synth Challenge with Tricent Mk III by Full Bucket

20 instances on this 80s bad boy.  It's really hard for me to ignore an OSC with a Full Bucket synth.  They just instantly transport you somewhere.  In this case I landed back in the 80s which makes sense as its based on an 80s synth, the Korg Trident.   The textures you can get out of this synth were so rich, and lively.  Beautiful stuff and in more than a few places I used a preset just because it simply every patch seems to sit so well.
Drums were somewhat tricky.  No noise osc or advanced envelope curves so you right away you weren't going to get the most realistic sound out of them.  I found mine via self-oscillation of the filter and then went for a drum machine aesthetic.  I also rangled noisesh sounds out of flanger self-oscillation and basically mashed 20 keys at once to get a hit.
It's really easy to nerd out on Bjorns synths, but somehow you never lose sight of just how musical they are.  Thanks again for another great release!

Magenta Memory (KVR OSC 135)

Made this for /r/edmsamplepackcontests.  Wanted to get an entry in, so I rushed this production in a few hours.

Calling

Not much to say on this track, spent some time mixing it.  Wanted something a little dark with some flow.  Tried to leave it over night and not overwork it nightly instead of ramming every idea in the second I had it.

Forgiveness

Mix-challenge.com song writing contest.   Challenge, write a dnb song appropriate for anti-grav racing game.  Short on time but good enough to enter.   Next one will be better!

Arrival

One Synth Challenge with Surge, 22 instances.

Surge is a modern synth so I figured give this months OSC a modern vibe.   Spent most of the time on making percs (young chop ayy) which is so much easier in a daw with fx racks (sorry Reaper still love you).  I found instrument layer devices easier to navigate than using Surge's B scene - it's just less menu/daw diving.

I think I had the most fun just browsing the great Surge presets and playing with those.   I ditched most of it, but there's so much there to go back and use for other tracks.  I can see Surge ending up side by side with pro plugins easily.

Confusion (KVR OSC 138)

Mix-challenge 37 song writing contest -  Lo-Fi Hip Hop.  LFHH usually doesn't have words, so I didn't have to come up with any rhymes (and believe me you don't want that).  
I sort of multi-purposed this track to DC area 90s slow jam. Memories of WPGC late night all blur together...
I also tried to make it peaceful given the usual theme for September and Mix-challenge.com is Mental Health - something we all need these days given where the world is right now.

This Too Shall Pass

The goal for this SWC was for us to produce a new age track.  I kind of got lost in deep 90s "Pure Moods" realm after a few false starts.  Regarding the vocals, it's this wonderful sample pack (with heavy processing/slicing) from Earth Moments - the Maasai Tribal Textures Pack.   I originally asked for transations from EM, but I got no response from support.   I really enjoyed their energy so I kind of built the track around the samples.

Nitty gritty music tech:
Diva, Dexed, Korg-M1, 106-Emulation (TubeOhm), Soundtoys Little Plate, Echoboy, FF Saturn, Softube classic compressors and Tape, Relab Sonsig, LX480.  If you have any questions on any part of it feel free to ask below!  

Enjoy!

Out the Door

Producer, musician, guitarist.  Welcome to my portfolio of for fun comp entries and other odds and ends.  Eventually on YT/Insta/Spotify etc when I finally choose a sound  or make something I want to release. 
Banner credit: Johnny Mnemonic(1995) screenshot

functionform

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